The Russian army promises to let go the inhabitants of the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mariupol and Sumy, targets of bombardments and intense fighting.
Moscow promises to have transmitted all the necessary information to the UN, the OSCE and the Red Cross. After several failures this weekend, notably in Mariupol, the Russian army announced on Monday the opening of several humanitarian corridors and the establishment of local ceasefires to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv (Kiev) , Mariupol and Sumy, plagued by fierce fighting. “Russian forces, for humanitarian purposes, declare a “regime of silence” from 10 a.m. on March 7 and the opening of humanitarian corridors”the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The evacuated inhabitants will be able to go, in particular, to Belarus or Russia. The statement does not specify whether the lanes will open at local time in Ukraine (8 a.m. GMT) or Moscow time (7 a.m. GMT) and how long they will remain open.
The Russian army specifies that this decision was taken after a “personal request” from French President Emmanuel Macron addressed to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The two leaders spoke for two hours on Sunday by telephone. The Elysée immediately denied this version, insisting on stopping the bombardments and the fighting by the Russian forces.
“To the question: ‘did you ask for the corridors to go to Russia?’, the answer is obviously no”, said the presidential services. Emmanuel Macron, who spoke again with Vladimir Putin on Sunday, “called for respect for international humanitarian law, the protection of civilian populations and the delivery of aid. He recalled the importance of a negotiated solution, fully acceptable to the Ukrainians (…) We ask the Russians to stop fighting, and respect for international humanitarian law.
In recent days, two attempts to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine have failed, with Kyiv and Moscow accusing each other of violating conditions for the evacuation.
The Russian army said on Monday that it would open a corridor between the capital Kyiv (Kiev) and the Belarusian city of Gomel, not far from the Ukrainian border. According to this source, two other corridors will start from Mariupol and will allow either an evacuation in the direction of Russia to the city of Rostov-on-Don, or westward to the Ukrainian city of Zaporijia. Moscow has specified that another corridor will run from Kharkiv to the Russian city of Belgorod. Finally, two routes should allow civilians to leave the Ukrainian city of Sumy: either to Belgorod in Russia or to Poltava in Ukraine.
Update at 8:55 am with the denial of the Elysée.